We now live in a country where the government can use Predator drones to track us without warrants, indefinitely detain us without trial, and assassinate us without charges. They do this in the name of security, yet somehow it just doesn’t make me feel any safer. I’ll tell you what does make me feel safer. Americans bought a record number of guns as Christmas presents this year, 25% of them first time buyers and many of them women.

 

According to reports from the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks were requested from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by gun dealers on customers purchasing new firearms in December.

 

December 23rd marked the second busiest single day for buying guns in American history with 102,222 background checks. The record is 129,166 background checks made on the day after Thanksgiving just a month ago. According to the FBI only 1.3% of customers are denied permission to buy a weapon, and that’s just the number of customers. If they were...